


Scraps

by Boxcarprince



Category: The Creatures (Youtube RPF)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Zombie Apocalypse, Gen, M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-09-06
Updated: 2014-10-11
Packaged: 2018-02-16 09:23:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 5
Words: 5,045
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2264400
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Boxcarprince/pseuds/Boxcarprince
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Zombies don't exist, but a virus can easily mimic the actions of them.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

Eight days after the apocalypse.

No one knows how it started. Some rumoured that it was initiated and spread by rats or mosquitoes, others think it was due to an infected water supply, and a few even accused the government of starting it. However, the explanation most agreed on was this: Everybody was already infected with this virus, and it was a separate disease, a separate chemical, that triggered the reaction. Said chemical could be anything, though most people blamed the multiple new vaccines that had been used throughout the whole United States. 

Not many people cared about the cause, though. Why would something like that matter when you’re more focused on trying to save yourself from Death himself?

It didn’t help that the virus only got worse. By day one, it was just a curious illness. By day two, hundreds had caught the virus. By day three, many areas initiated lockdown. By day four, panic kicked in. By day five, thousands were dead. By day six, thousands were turned. By day seven, no one left their houses. 

And now, on day eight, those who survived the first week realized that they needed supplies. And getting supplies meant adventuring out onto the streets, away from safety.

-

“Yeah, okay. Who’s there with you?”

_“It’s me, Dan, and Seamus. Do you know where Eddie is?”_

“No, I haven’t heard from him. Neither has James. He won’t respond to our calls.”

_“Ours, either. Look, we’ll sort this out. You two just need to come down here as soon as you can so we can come up with a plan.”_

“That’s kind of hard, Jordan! Have you looked outside lately? I don’t know about you, but James and I are currently surrounded by a lot of walking corpses.”

_“I know, I know. You live near the office though, and your car still works, doesn’t it? Grab something that you can use as a weapon and make your way over here.”_

“A weapon? What the fuck? I’m not killing anybody!”

_“Aleks, you said it yourself. They’re just walking corpses, now.”_

“Yeah? How do you know there’s not a cure for this? If everybody can go back to normal, I’m not going to do anything like that.”

 _“Most of them have no limbs. They are literally rotting. These things aren’t human anymore. It isn’t something that can just be cured.”_ There was a pause on the line, followed by an intake of breath. _“I know it’s hard, but you need to look out for number one. Pack as much as you can and come soon, please.”_

Before Aleks could say anything more, his phone beeped three times, signalling that Jordan hung up. He sighed, sticking his phone back into his pocket and collapsing onto the couch. A few minutes later, James entered the room, a hammer in one hand and a box of nails in the other.

“Did Jordan answer?”

“Yeah. He, Dan, and Seamus are at the office.”

“What about Eddie?”

Aleks shrugged. “They can’t get a hold of him, either. But, uh, Jordan asked us to go to the office.”

“Fuck that, I’m not leaving this house till it’s safe.”

“I know it’s not ideal, James, but we need to meet up. And I... I don’t think it’s going to get safer anytime soon. We can’t stay here forever.”

“Well, what did he want us to do? Run out into the big crowd of dead people and get mauled?”

Aleks looked at his friend cautiously. “He told us to bring weapons.”

-

“That’s everything?” James asked quietly as he piled the final box of food into the car. 

“Should be. You ready?”

“No. But I guess that doesn’t really matter.”

Aleks just shook his head in reply. He opened the front door and slid into the driver’s seat. He buckled his seatbelt, and then inserted the key into the ignition.

“Wh-what do you think will happen? When the garage door opens?” The Russian asked as James buckled himself in.

“I don’t know, Aleks. Maybe they’ll bake us cookies.” He replied sarcastically. “We don’t know anything about this...virus. But so far, they’re acting like zombies, so I’m going to stick with the idea that sound only drives them more crazy.”

“Okay. Okay,” Aleks squinted his eyes and took a deep breath, obviously trying to calm himself down. “Okay. Let’s go.”

Reaching up to the car visor, he pushed the button that was hooked onto it. Immediately, the  
garage door in front of their car began to slowly open. The noise it created caused both men in the car to flinch. Still, they looked through the windshield almost eagerly, wondering what it looked like on the other side.

And once the door was open enough for them to peer out, they saw the twenty pairs of bloodshot eyes locked onto their vehicle.


	2. Chapter 2

“Fuck.” James whispered. He turned towards Aleks, who was staring out of the car, eyes wide in what seemed to be disbelief.

“I think you were right.” The other boy stuttered out, hands gripping the wheel tightly.

“I think I fucking was.” James agreed. “And I think you better step on the fucking gas.”

The Russian quickly nodded, and after a second of shuffling, the car jolted forward. It rolled off of the driveway on onto the road, where, for a single moment, it sat still. 

And in that moment, the bodies around them came alive.

Groans erupted from each infected person, and they simultaneously trudged towards the vehicle. Some dragged broken legs behind them, others were on the ground crawling. All of them had ghastly pale skin and unfocused eyes that were fixated on only one thing: the car.

“Aleks! Drive!”

Immediately, the car sputtered forward, speeding down the street. It swerved around the few abandoned automobiles that were scattered on the road, before turning a corner and disappearing from the creatures’ sight. 

-

“Oh my God. Oh my fucking God.” The man in the driver’s seat sat stock still, his face almost as pale as one of the infected. “What the hell is going on?”

Next to him, James was reacting a little better. “Aleks, it’s fine. Calm down, we’ll be okay. We just need to get to the office.” 

His friend didn’t seem to hear his words. He kept mumbling obscenities underneath his breath, and it was obvious that he wasn’t focusing on driving. Worried for many different reasons, James carefully reached over and grabbed Aleks’ hand from the steering wheel.

“Wh-?” The Russian said aloud, tearing his eyes off of the road to look first at James and then at their hands.

“Shut up and drive.”

“Okay.”

 

-

Thirty minutes later, the car rolled to a stop.

“What’s up?” James asked, looking away from the window he had been staring out of.

“Um...I’m not sure.”

A confused glance was sent towards the Russian as he unbuckled himself and exited the car. As he made his way to the front of the vehicle, he heard the other door quietly shut, signalling that James had followed him out.

“What do you mean by ‘I’m not sure’?”

“I mean I’m not sure! We have practically full gas, I don’t know what the problem is.”

“You’re saying that you didn’t just randomly stop?” James said, an unreadable expression on his face. “Are we fucking stuck?”

“Well,” Aleks ran a hand through his hair. “That depends.”

“On what, if our engine is dead?”

“Maybe.” As he spoke, Aleks opened the hood of the car, using the hood prop to make it stay. He looked around for a few minutes, poking at random wires occasionally.

“So?” James called from behind him, obviously getting impatient.

“I’m not a car expert, James, I don’t know what’s wrong. Everything seems fine.” Aleks pulled his head out and shut the hood, looking upset.

“Then what are we supposed to do?”

“I’ll just call Jordan or something, we’re close enough that he can pick us up.”

“Good, you do that.” James angrily made his way back around the car, entering the passenger seat once more, leaving Aleks alone. The man shook his head and pulled out his phone. After tapping his screen multiple times, he brought the device up to his ear.

_Beep, beep, beep._

“What the fuck?” He pulled his phone down again to check the screen, only to find that a message covered it.

_No reception found. Please try calling again later._

Aleks let out a groan and walked back to the front door of the car. He yanked it open and leaned inside. “Yo, I can’t call Jordan. I have no signal.”

“Okay, let me try.” In the car, James pulled out his own cellphone. He turned it on and did the same process that Aleks had, tapping the screen and holding it to his ear. He paused for a few seconds, carefully listening, before throwing his device down in disgust. “Hell, I have no reception, either.”

“Well…shit.” Aleks said, his face starting to adapt the same expression he had after their encounter with the infected. His fingers rolled across the car’s roof restlessly.

“How much further is it?”

“What, the office? Like, a mile or two, I think.” He stared at James blankly. “We aren’t walking there.”

“Aleks-”

“No, dude! Even if getting our faces torn off wasn’t a problem, we can’t carry all of our stuff.”

“Then we leave some things behind. Look, we’re too far from home, now. And we can’t sit here and wait for them to find us, because I doubt they’ll ever actually look.” James slid out of the car once more, walking around towards Aleks, who also backed out of the vehicle. Both doors were quietly shut.

“We have a few bags. Just stuff them with whatever you need. Maybe we can come back for the rest later.” James opened the trunk of the car and pulled out three backpacks and a big duffel. He tossed two of the former to Aleks, keeping the rest for himself. He began to rummage through the boxes they had stored in the back of the car, moving various blankets and food into the biggest bag and his clothes into the backpack.

The younger man sighed loudly, rubbing his hand over his eyes. However, he still ended up beside his friend, packing his own bags.

When all of the packs were filled, the back of the car was only half empty. They had no more room, though, so James reached over to shut the trunk. Before he had the chance to grab the door, Aleks quickly reached in and grabbed two more things that were buried behind the last of the supplies.

A bat was shoved into James’ hands, and the Russian himself wielded a shovel.

“Now or never,”


	3. Chapter 3

For the first ten minutes of walking, the streets were empty. 

At first, they were worried, because they had seen so many infected by their house. Logically, shouldn’t there be more now? However, they eventually decided that they shouldn’t question the luck that they were given and moved on, speaking only in whispers.

“There’s, what? Maybe twenty more minutes of walking?”

“I don’t know, dude.” Aleks said, shrugging his shoulders to prove his point.

“Well, I can’t wait till we finally get there. I just want to meet up with the guys and be done.”

“Done with what? It’s not like everything is going to be magically over once we reach the office.”

“Yeah, but in the video games, they always say being in a big group is safer than being alone. And if we have enough supplies, we might be able to just hold out there for a while.”

“I’m not sure, James. I mean, how do you figure this is all going to be fixed? It’s not like the virus is just going to go away itself. Right now I feel like our only hope of safety is if some police force rescues us or something, and that doesn’t seem likely.”

“Stay optimistic, buddy. It could happen.” James was about to poke Aleks with his bat, but suddenly halted in his tracks.

“What’re yo-?”

“Shh!” He raised his hand and pointed down the road. Aleks’ eyes followed his finger, and sure enough, a group of three infected shambled by a crashed car that seemed to have driven straight into a tree beside the road.

“Think we can go around them? I don’t- I can’t…” Aleks’ voice trailed off.

“Yeah. We’ll try, but be ready. Stay behind me.” James raised his weapon, and Aleks followed in suit. Slowly, they made their way towards the other side of the street, both pairs of eyes glued onto the three figures across the road. They knew that a single misplaced step could kill both of them.

So, of course, Aleks tripped.

With an oof, he fell to the ground, elbows painfully breaking the fall. In front of him, James froze. His head cautiously turned towards the infected, but it didn’t matter. They had already heard.

“Fucking run, go!” Yelled the Russian from the ground, trying to pull himself up. James only shook his head, grabbing his friends’ arm and yanking him to his feet. He began running, pulling Aleks behind him. Remembering the speed of the previous infected they saw, he knew that they’d be able to outrun them as long as they didn’t run into more. He didn’t take into consideration the fact that not all of the infected are the same.

“Um, James!” Aleks called out, suddenly running past him. He kept looking behind them, which seemed to make him sprint only faster. Fearing the worst, James spared a glance back, only to have the same reaction as Aleks.

The infected were sprinting, and they were faster than the two men.

“Oh, fuck me,” He mumbled, trying to catch back up to Aleks, who was now a good five feet in front of him. 

“James, come on!” Aleks shouted, after looking back and seeing that he was leaving his friend behind.

“I can’t run that fast, I’m sorry!” 

Aleks began to slow down, letting James pass him and then putting a hand on his back. Before he could actually give him a boost, though, he felt a clawed hand grab his shoulder, and he was yanked backwards. He let out a yell as he tumbled once more onto the ground, twisting around to avoid landing on his back. Instead, his weight fell onto his right arm with a quiet crack, and suddenly it erupted in pain.

“James!” He yelped, trying to clamber to his feet again. Before he could, one of the infected lept onto him, immediately shredding his back with nails that felt like knives. It got in three long scratches before he heard a thwump, and the body on top of him fell limp. 

“Get up, get behind me,”

And then he saw James standing over him, bat swinging at the next infected. With his left hand, Aleks pushed himself up. He snatched the shovel that had been thrown to the side and readied himself, only to see that James had already taken care of the two infected.

“Where’s that last fucker?” The older man said, taking a few steps in all directions and squinting down the road they had came from. 

“It - shit -,” Aleks bit his lip, trying to ignore the stinging on his back and the ache in his arm. “It stopped chasing us a while back.”

“Good.” James let go of his bat, letting it fall to the ground, and turned around to face Aleks. “Damn, I can’t believe that just happened.”

“Yeah,” The Russian nodded, then carefully sat on the grass beside the road. “This is a fucking nightmare, this can’t be real.”

“We just need to get to the office. Maybe they know more about this virus or something. They can help.”

“I think I need some bandages. How does my back look?”

James kneeled beside him. He gently lifted the back of his shirt up, but, upon seeing the wounds underneath, let it drop back down. “Bad. Bloody.”

Aleks felt tears start to burn in his eyes, and he quickly blinked them away. “It hurts. My arm hurts, too.”

“Your arm?” James questioned. He dropped the duffel bag that was still around his neck onto the ground, then walked over to where he had put the backpack down after Aleks fell. As Aleks spoke, he began to dig through the latter bag.

“I think I did something to it when I fell. I don’t know, James, but it hurts really bad. Everything hurts.”

“It’s okay, it’s fine. Here, bandages. You need to take off your jacket and shirt so I can wrap you up.”

Aleks nodded and began to slowly remove the articles of clothing. He could only get the hoodie off, though; his attempts at pulling off his shirt only left him crying in pain.

“I’ll just put it around your shirt. We can try again later, okay? When we get to the office, they can” As he spoke, James’ voice adapted a soft tone, obviously being calm for Aleks. He started to gingerly wrap the bandages around Aleks’ back, stopping each time his friend seemed hurt. 

“I’m not sure what to do about your arm. Do you think you broke it?” He asked after he had finished.

“I don’t know.” Aleks brought his hand up to wipe at his eyes again. “I don’t think it’s that bad.”

“Okay. I’m just going to wrap the bandages around it as well. Tell me how it feels later.”

Aleks nodded and held his arm out to James. He watched as the soft material was wound around his it, trying to keep himself together. When James was done, he helped Aleks slide back into his hoodie and stand up.

“Thanks for trying to help me, by the way. Before it attacked. You probably wouldn’t have gotten hurt if you kept running.”

“I’m not about to leave you behind, James.”

James blushed. “Thanks for that. Do you think you can make it fifteen more minutes? We should be at the office by then.”

“If we run into anymore infected…”

“Hey, my bat took them down nice and easy. They aren’t a problem, as long as there aren’t a lot.”

“Okay. I left one of my bags back there.”

“Which one was it?”

“The one with my clothes. We don’t need it.”

“Are you sure?”

‘Yes. I have some spares at the office.”

“Alright, let’s go, then.”

As they began walking down the road once more, Aleks asked one more thing. “James, what if the virus spreads through their claws? James...what if I’m infected, now?”

Those last words made James freeze. He stared at Aleks, unsure of what he was feeling. Anger? Sorrow? 

“We’ll just have to wait and see.”


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So it turns out I forgot to update the story on here. Sorry, tumblr has been my primary focus for this, but I'll try to post new chapters on both sites next time. <33

Twenty minutes later, the office was in sight. With a breath of relief, the duo began to walk faster, energy suddenly restored. James kept running down the road, stopping, and turning to wait for Aleks to catch up. 

“Come on, hurry up!” The older man yelled as loudly as he dared, waving his hand towards Aleks. The Russian, upon being rushed, tried to jog the rest of the way, but gave up after a few steps.

“I can’t,” He replied simply, and so James waited patiently until Aleks met with him in front of the office doors. 

“You’d think they would be out here ready to help us out, huh?” James questioned, pushing the door open.

“Not really. I’d be surprised if they aren’t hiding in the bathroom.” Aleks said sarcastically as he followed him inside. They paused briefly at the elevator, but decided to use the stairs instead, in fear that the lift may be broken. 

When they reached their office, they could immediately tell that something was wrong. The door was busted - a long, cracked hole ran vertically around the middle of it - and halfway open. The two men glanced at each other, already scared for what they would find inside.

James raised his hand and knocked three times on the wall next to the door. When no response was given, Aleks shouldered James out of his way and gave the door a push, flinging it open.

On the other side, it was a mess, and not a single Creature was in sight.

“What the fuck, dude?” Aleks questioned quietly. He quickly began to check through the office, barely glancing at the corpses and tools that were scattered on the ground. He opened the door to each room, peeked his head inside, and then slammed it shut again. As he made his way down the hall, James examined the break room.

The first thing he noticed, besides the aforementioned bodies, was how trashed everything was: Tables were thrown around carelessly, stacked near the door. Both the dartboard and the basketball hoop were on the floor. The couch’s cushions were falling off.

And then James noticed the slip of paper that lay on the far wall, directly opposite of the door. Curious, he made his way over to it. Once he was close enough, he began to read what it said.

 

_james and aleks:_  
office got atacked  
went north, going to stop at the theater if its safe  
phones stoped working, keep trying though  
come when you can, stay safe  
-jordan 

 

By the awful handwriting and the misspelt words, It was obvious it was written in a hurry. The drops of red that splattered the page didn’t make the note anymore relieving.

“Aleks, come see what I found,” He called out, snatching the note from the wall and then strolling down the office hall. He didn’t bother checking the rooms, figuring that Aleks had stayed in his own. 

He knocked on his friend’s door, carefully opening it up and slipping inside. It was dark, and his eyes took a moment to adjust to the poor lighting. As soon as they did, however, he saw Aleks’ small figure curled up in the corner of the room, shaking slightly. He instantly forgot about the note, which he let fall to the ground. 

“Aleks?” He questioned, slowly walking over to the man. Aleks kept his head in his arms and let out a shaky breath, indicating that he was indeed crying. Wordlessly, James sat down next to Aleks and wrapped his hands around him. Aleks also remained silent, but leaned heavily into James hold. 

After a few minutes, the Russian’s breathing finally evened out again, and he eventually uncurled himself from the ball that he had formed.

“Sorry.” He muttered quietly, wiping a hand over his eyes.

“It’s fine.” James unwrapped himself and stood up, offering a hand to Aleks, who graciously accepted it. The older man helped him to his feet, and together they walked back out of the room. 

“You’re okay?” James confirmed, leaning against the doorway as he looked at his friend.

“Yes.”

“You want to talk about it?”

“No.”

“Alright, then.” James, remembering the note, bent down and retrieved it from where it had fallen onto the floor. He handed it to Aleks, and waited as he read it.

“So, what do you want to do?” He asked when Aleks gave the paper back to him. 

“I don’t fucking know, anymore.”

“Would you rather stay here on low supplies or follow them to the theater?”

Aleks ran a hand through his hair and shrugged. “I’d say we’re dead either way. We might as well try to find our friends before we go.”

“That’s the spirit, champ.”


	5. Chapter 5

“I’d reckon it’s, what, thirty miles?” James said, shrugging the duffel bag further up his shoulder. 

“Something like that. You don’t plan to walk all of that today, do you? It’s already getting late.”

“No, we’ll stop somewhere in a while. In hindsight, we should have just stayed at the office for the night, but I guess we’ll get to the theater quicker this way.”

“Well,” Aleks spoke, quickening his pace to keep up with James. “When you say ‘stop somewhere,’ does that mean asking a nice family if we can spend the night?”

“Probably not. I’m going to guess that a fair share of the world, or at least of the United States, is infected. Judging by all of the trashed buildings we passed - like that one right there,” He pointed at what looked like a two story house, set a few yards back from the road. The windows were broken, the door hanging off of it’s hinges. “People have already adapted to doing whatever it takes to survive.”

“Are you saying that we’re going to break into a house?” Aleks asked, trying to keep his face from showing how surprised he was. 

“I don’t know, Aleks. All I’m saying is that you need to stop thinking as if we’re still living a normal life. Things have changed, now, and although it sucks, we need to realize that.”

Aleks didn’t reply. He used his foot to send a stone skipping down the road, watching as it rolled into the grass. 

“How’s your back? And your arm?” James questioned, deciding to change the topic.

“My arm’s better, I can move it more now. My back still hurts like hell, though.”

“Your shirt is probably pretty ruined, at this point. We still need to put the bandages under it.”

“Yeah, that will help, hopefully.” 

James once more pushed the big bag up his shoulder, and by doing so, his backpack fell to the ground.

“Shit,” He said, dropping down to pick it back up.

“I can carry that, if you want. Since I lost my other bag.”

“How are you going to hold it?” James was referring to how Aleks had to carry his current pack by the handle due to his injuries. Putting it on his back had hurt too much at the time, and now, between that and his shovel, his hands were full.

“I’ll just put it on my back, it’s fine.”

“Alright, but if it hurts, give it back.” James let Aleks pick up his bag, and was then able to successfully keep the duffel bag from slipping off. The Russian carefully slid the pack onto his back and, although it made his whole torso sting with pain, he decided to ignore it.

“Ready to keep going?” 

“Yep, let’s go.”

-

An hour of walking later, both men were ready to collapse.

“We’ve been walking literally all day. Can we call it a night, James?”

“Yeah.” James craned his neck forward, squinting his eyes to see down the road. “There’s a nice little house a bit farther. Can you make it?”

Aleks nodded, and together they walked the final yards to the home. 

-

At the door of the house, they paused. James knocked a few times, and then waited. When there was no response, he tried to open the door. Luckily, it was unlocked, and he led the duo into the building.

“Hello?” He called out softly. Again, it was silent, and so he took that as a good sign. 

“I’ll go check the other rooms. Pull out some food while I’m gone, I’m hungry.” Aleks tightened his grip on the shovel, before exiting the doorway and exploring the rest of the house. James shrugged and walked into the room directly in front of the main door, which he assumed was a living room of some sort. He dropped his bag onto the couch and sat down next to it.

As he was shifting through the duffel, Aleks walked back into the room. 

“It’s pretty small, one story. I only saw one bedroom.” He reported, throwing his two bags down next to the duffel, and sat on the other side of James.

“That’s okay, I’ll sleep here.” 

Aleks would have argued, but his back was hurting more than ever, so he just nodded. “Food?”

“Got some bananas, granola bars, cereal, and a lot more snack foods. Anything in particular you want?”

“Yeah, a burger.” The younger man replied, then gave his friend a smile. “I’ll just take a few granola bars, thanks.”

“Sure thing,” James began handed Aleks two of the bars, but stopped short. 

“Something wrong?”

“Your sweatshirt is…” James reached out and tried to turn Aleks around, but the man shifted out of his grasp, eying James oddly. “Take it off.”

“Um, excuse me?”

“Take your hoodie off.”

Aleks gave James a what-the-fuck-are-you-talking-about look, but did as he requested anyways. Oddly enough, he found that the article of clothing felt slightly glued to his back. 

“Fuck, why didn’t you give me the pack back?” James asked, suddenly sounding worried. He quickly began digging through the duffel bag again.

“It-it didn’t hurt me,” Aleks lied. Before he had the chance to ask why James had asked, he looked down at the hoodie in his hands and saw the blood that stained a portion of the back of it. “Oh.”

James unwrapped the bandages that he had sloppily wrapped around Aleks’ shirt before. When he was finished, he said, “Okay, I don’t care how much it hurts, take your shirt off.”

This time, with help from him, Aleks managed to remove the t-shirt. When he felt how sticky it was, saw how it had been practically drenched in red, his face paled. 

“I guess it was hurting a bit.” The Russian said quietly, tossing the shirt onto the floor. James just shook his head and pulled out the rest of the bandages. He wordlessly wrapped the cloth around Aleks’ torso, stopping every time he yelled in pain. 

“Fuck,” Aleks whispered when James was finally done, biting his hand to keep from crying.

“Are you okay? How does that feel?”

“I’m fine. It feels okay.”

“Do you want me to help you to the bed?”

“Yes, please.” 

James helped Aleks to his feet, and the younger man gratefully leaned heavily against him. Together they walked into the bedroom, where James then let Aleks fall into the bed.

“You good for the night? I’ll see if I can wash your shirt before I sleep.”

“I’m good. Thanks a lot, James.”

James gave him a small smile, and then exited the room, closing the door behind him.

He only hoped that his friend would feel better in the morning.


End file.
